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(N0 Modl.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 1. A. M. HOPMANN &; G. B. VAN HORN. PROCESS OF AND APPARATUS FOR CHARGING LIQUIDS WITH GAS. No. 538,833.

Patented May '7, 1895.

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(No-Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet A. M. HOFMANN & (LB. VAN HORN.

PROCESS OF AND APPARATUS FOR GHARGING'LIOUIDS WITH GAS. N0. 5 38,833.

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' UNrrED STATE-s -PATENT OFFIcE.

ALVES M. HOFMANN AND CHARLES B. VAN HORN, OF CHIOAGO,-ILLINOIS; SAID VAN HORN ASSIGNOR TO SAID HOFMANN.

PROCESS OFAND APPARATUS FOR CHARGING LIQUIDS WITH GAS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 538,833, dated May 7, 1895.

Application fi d October 15, 1894- Se'rial No. 525,934:- (No model) To all whom it may concern Be it known that We, ALVES M. HOFMANN -and CHARLES E. VAN HORN, citizens of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Processes of and Apparatus for Charging Liquids with Gas, of which the following is a specification. We have especially devised our invention for charging beer with carbonic acid gas, and for that reason, although our improvement is applicable to charging liquids generally with gas, we confine the description hereinafter contained to its application to carbonating beer. 1

Our primary object is so to carbonate beer that the gas shall become so intimately incorporated with, or absorbed by, the liquid that it shall not readily separate therefrom either in the packages (barrels or kegs) from which the beer is drawn or in the vessels from which it is drunk, thereby preventing the beer from becoming flat, or causing it to maintain its liveliness, for an exceptionallylong time even when exposed to the air.

To practice our improved process, we proceed, generally stated, by forcing the beer,

(taking it preferably directfrom the rub cask) into a holder, which may be adapted to have the beer racked off from it; and in so forcing the beer we periodically inject into it, against an adequate counterpressure, a liquid, which may also be beer, supercharged with carbonic acid gas. It is, however, within the spirit ofour invention to effect the carbonating in any other suitable manner than with charged liquid. The beer thus mixed with gas-charged liquid is continuously forced into the holder against a suitably high counterpressure, say of air, till the holder is filled with the charged liquid, which thus as the filling proceeds displaces the counterpress- 'uremedium at the pressure of the latter.

After the holder has been thus filled to its capacity with finished liquid,.the operation of forcing the beer into it is continued to greatly increase the pressure of liquid therein, which has the effect of causing the gas to be absorbed by the beer in the holder, or to become' so intimately incorporated with the beer, that thelatter will retain it, and thus be prevented from becoming fiat, or from losing its liveliness, for an indefinitely long time.

We have devised, for practicing our improved process, the apparatus illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is a view of the apparatus, in side elevation, partly broken; Fig. 2, a plan view of the same; and Fig. 3, a broken sectional view, enlarged, of a-ball-valve detail. I

A denotes a suitable foundation or bed for the pumping and gas-charging mechanism. At the rear of the bed is journaled a shaft 7' carrying atone end a belt-pulley q at which to gear it to the driving-power (not shown), and carrying also a sprocket wheel 19 and a pinion 0, which meshes with a cog-wheel n on a counter crank-shaft m and carrying on its axis a cam m.

B is an agitator comprising acylinder supported on the bed A to contain the supercharged liquid, and containinga rotary shaft b provided with mixing blades 1 and conillustrated, though it needinvolve no features of novelty and is therefore not illustrated in detail. The pumppistous are connected with the cranks v and '1') on the shaft m. D is also a pump, shown as of the single-acting variety, and supported on the bed A, this pump having its piston connected with the shaft m at a crank therein, which is hidden from View, but in the'same manner as the connection described "of the pump D. The pumps D and D have a common supply-pipe '7 which m'ay be understood as leading from a ruh-c'askin the cellar of a brewcry; and the pumpD discharges through a pipe 2" into the cylinder of the agitator B The pump 'D discharges througha pipe i into.

a T-head i at the base of an upright chamber E, which we term the mixing-chamber, the same being preferably in the shape of a cylinder formed of glass. The agitatorB also discharges by way of the T-head i into the base of the mixing-chamberE through atu'be 1' containing a shutoff valve h havingits handle h connected with one end of a lever 7L fulcrumed at w and, at its opposite end, engaging the cam m. The mixing-chamber E discharges through a pipe or conduit 9 into a holder F, and we prefer, for the sake of economy in practicing our improved process, that the pipe gshall branch into at least two hold ers F and F by entering them at their sides and extending. downward therein nearly to. their bases as shown'atg, a three-waytcock-t tbeing interposed between the. branches of' the pipe g; the latter also containing ailiquid pressure relief-valve 9 which we set ata comparatively high pressure, say one hundred and fifty-pounds to the squareiuch, or th ereabont.

A com pressed-air (orother gasysupply pipe f leads from acorn pressororcompressedfluid reservoir (not shown) and branches at ath'reeway coclrf into thepipes f and f containingeacha ball-valve w, the pipef leading. into the holder F near itsupper end, andthe pipef sim-ilarly entering the holder F; Glass gages and f are provided onthe holders. Another branch .e, .coutainingma pressure-reducing. valve (1, leads fromtthe compressed; air pipef to a three-way cock-1e, .fromwhich it proceeds by the branches e and a respectively leading. into the gages f andfi A branch-pipe 6 containing: a pressure-redheing valve d leads from the branchepipee into a back-pressure reservoir G.

At thebasesof. the holders F andF' are shown branch-pipes c and 0 meeting at a suitable three-way cock 0, which is adjustable to direct the discharge of the liquid .icontents .of either holder atwvill into adraw-off pipe 0 for racking elf.

The-operation is as follows: The. holder to be filled with carbonated beer (say the holder F) is preparatorily-filledwith air underpressure, say at about forty pounds to the square iuch,-(the preferred limits .beingfrom thirtyfive to forty-five-pounds) and which is admitted therein by suitably adj usting the valve f the valve 6' beingclosed. VVhen theshaft r is geared to the driving power to actuate the pumps D and D, the forinerpumps,continuonsly, beer from a ruh-ca-sk through the chamber'E and pipe 9 into the holder. With each stroke of the piston of the pump D which forces beet-into the cylinder ofthe agitator B containingthe supply ofsuperchargedbeer,

the cam m actuates the lever 71 to open thevalve h andpermit a charge of the highlycarbonated beer from the agitatorito beinjected iuto the mixing-chamber E, enteringhthelat ter and :mixingwith' the contents thereof," introduced by the pump D, againsta counter-- pressure of air inthe system: of about forty pounds to the square inch, as aforesaid, which or either of them, after the holder has been 8:

completely filled with the beer, it is continued to force more beer into the already full holder, ,thereby introducingbut a very small quanltity therein, though that is sufficient to greatly Ecompress the liquid contents of the holder.

When this liquid pressure has been raised to :that at which the relief-valve g is set (say 'one hundred'and fifty-pounds), the pipeg will overflow there. Then the pumps and other machinery are stopped instantlyby turning the lever a to throw outthe clutch a.

The contents 0t the filled holder may be racked off at any time; but for racking, the pressure in the holder requires to be reduced to the racking-ofipoint, say to fifteen pounds to thesquareinch'.

Preparatory to racking, the valve f is shut to take the forty pounds of air-pressure from the pipef off the holder; and thereupon the valve e is opened'to permit the excessive pressure in the holder (one hundred and fifty pounds totth'e square inch") to be reduced, which occurs, on opening the valve e, by the surplus liquid contents (a comparatively minute quantity) which generated the greatliquid pressure in the holder, Spurting out, according to the arrangementshowu of the apparatus, through the pipes e and a into the holder F, whereby it is saved. Thereafter the'pressure ofair on the beer in the holder Fcomes from thepipe f through the pipe 8 and reducing-valve d,which isadjusted to reduce the pressure which enters it atforty pounds to fifteen pounds on theoutlet side of the valve, andthe pressure at fifteen pounds enters the holder F through the pipe e and is maintained thereon during the racking operation, or while the beer is being drawn off at the pipe 0. The hack-pressure reservoir G, of course, is only used in racking off,"its supply ofairpressurecoming from thepipejithrough the pipe e and reducing-valve d and thence through the pipe e and reducing valve (1' ,therein, which is arrangedto still further reduce the pressure, say to fourteen pounds. A relief-valve a'is provided'on the reservoir G to permitthe ventingof any pressure therein in excessof the fourteen pounds.

' As will be understoodb'y those skilled in ,the art, the racking apparatus, which may be ofany suitable construction, such as that set forth in the allowed application of Alves M. Hofmann, one of the present applicants, and which was filed March 31, 1894, with the Se rial No.505,882, and entitled Process of and apparatus for preparing beer and other liquids in receptacles for the market, is to be connected with the pipe and with the backpressure reservoir G at a pipe b indicated by a dotted representation thereon, to hold the gas against escaping from the beer in racking it off.

While the contents of the holder F are being racked off, the holder F may be undergoing the same operation as that described of the holder F, by turning the valve f 2 to fill it with the requisite air-pressure, then actuating the pumps D and D till the liquid pressure Y to be understood, however, that our invention render it suitable for consumption. this liquid to hold its gas, however, we furis not limited to the employment of more than one holder, with its air-pressure connections, when the valve e could vent into the open air.

As will be observed, the all-important feature of our improved process is that of raising the liquid pressure of the gas-charged or finished-liquid contents (whatever the manner and means of their introduction) of the holder by forcing additional liquid into the already full holder. The effect of this is, so to speak, that of compressing or squeezing the gas-charged liquid in the holder and, as the result, enhancing greatly the intimacy and permanency of incorporation therewith of its contained gas.

By the term finished. liquid, herein employed to designate the contents of the holder, we mean a liquid fully charged with gas to To cause ther subject our finished liquid to what we term a liquid pressure of, say, one hundred and fifty pounds in the holder, in which the contents are con fined against escape. It will be noticed that this differentiates our process from another process known -to us, in which pressure is applied to the liquid while the latter is being carbonated and while it is escaping from the holder.

It is also of great importance for the successful working of our process, that the charging of the beer with gas, or with the supercharged liquid, and forcing it into the holder, shall be against an adequate counterpressu re,

' as of air, though other gas maybe employe for exerting the counterpressure.

Beer carbonated according to our improved process may, as experience shows, be exposed for many hours to the atmosphere without losing sufficient of its contained gas to impair it for drinking. In fact the gas, owing to its intimate incorporation with the beer, stays with it, and is only freed readily if the beer be'agitated in the air. Moreover the foam of beer carbonated by our improved process is thick, like cream, and very lasting.

The apparatus which we have shown and described is the best known to us for the practice of our process, both in its general construction and in matters of detail; but it may be variously modified without departure from our invention provided any pumping mechanism be employed to force the liquid to be charged with gas through a conduit having an interposed mixing-chamber into a holder against adequate counterpressure, and means be provided for periodically charging the liquid with gas in its course to the holder.

It will, moreover, be noticed, as 'a distin guishing feature of our apparatus, that the mixing-chamber is interposed between the discharge-end of the pumping mechanism and the holder, whereby passage of the gascharged liquid through the pump is avoided. What we claim as new, anddesire to secure by LettersPa-tent, is-' i 1.-The' process of enhancing theincorporation,in a finished liquid,'of its contained gas,

which 'con'sistsin filling a holder'to its capacity with, and confiningj'against escape therefrom the finished liquid and compressing the'finished liquid in said holder, substantially as described.

2. The process of enhancing the incorporation in a gas-charged liquid of its contained gas, which consists in first filling to its capacity a holder, with the finished liquid, and thereupon compressing said contents, while under confinement in the holder, by continuing to force liquid against said contents, substantially as described.

3. Theprocess of charging aliquid with gas, which ,consists in forcing .the liquid to be charged into a holder against adequate counterpressure and injecting into said liquid, in its course to said holder and against said counterpressure, a liquid supercharged with gas, thereby filling said holder to its capacity with. finished liquid and continuing the forcing operation into said holder, against its confined finished-liquid contents, to raise the liquid-pressure of said contents, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

4. The process of carbonating beer, which consists in pumping beerinto a holder against counterpressure, injecting into said beer, in its course to the holder and against counterpressure, beer'supercharged with carbonic acid gas, thereby filling said holder to its capacity with finished liquid and displacing with the beer so charged the counterpressure medium as the supply in the holderincreases, and thereupon raising the pressure of liquid while confined against escape in said holder and enhancing the incorporation in it of its contained gas by continuing to pump beer into the holder, substantially as described.

5. The process of carbonating beer and preparing it for racking oif, which consists in pumping beer into a holder against counterpressure, injecting into said beer, in itscourse to the holder and against counterpressure,

beer supercharged with carbonic acid gas,

thereby filling said holder to its capacity with finished liquid anddisplacing-.with' the beer so charged i the counterpressu-re medium as the supply in the holder increaseathereuponraising the pressure of liquid while confined againstescape in said holder-and enhancing the incorporation in it of its contained. gas

by continuing to pump i'beer' into the-holder,

and finally discontinuing the-supply to. the" holder and red ucingthe-liquid pressure therein to the racking-oft- P0111113," subst-antiallytasdescribed) 6. The process of .carbouating beer; which consists in pumpingbeerin-to aholder against, counterpressure, mixing; ofl'sueht beer and su-- perchargin g .it with carbonicacid gastandpe; ri'odical-ly injectinginto said beer, in its course: to the holder and againstJcotrnterpressu-re a suitable proportion of the supercharged .beer, thereby filling said holdertoaits capaeitywith finished liquid and displacingtwithtits=liquid contents-the eounterpressurei medium as the supply in the %holder1increases-,-and'thereupon raisin gathepressureot liquidiwhile confined against escapein said: holder an dsenhancing: the incorporation in it of its contained gas by continuing to pump beer into the holder, substantiallyasdescribed.

7. The process OfJcarboH-atingebeerand pro-1 paring; it, for racking; 06E, WhlGhzlCODSiStSwlIl pumpinghbeer into, at h'older agai-nst aicoun! terpressure ofia'irlof ifortypouu'dsito thesquarev inch, or thereabout, mixingtofwsuchtbeerrand supereharging, it with carbonic. acid 'gasan-d periodically injecting into said beerin; its course to. the holder and against said counterpressure, a. suitable proportion :of the supercharged beer, thereby-filling said holder to its capacitywith finished liquid and overcoming with its contentssaid courrterpressure,as the supply. in: the holderincreases, thereupon raisingsth'e pressure ot liquid .in-said holder to one hundred and fifty pounds to the square 1 inch, orth'ereabout, and thusienhancingthe incorporationins it of itscontained gas by continuing to pump, beer into the -holder,, against the finished. liquidtconfined therein from escapiugv'and finally discontinuing the t supply to the holder-rand reducingtheliquid-- pressure therein to the rackingaoft point, sub-- stantially as described.-

8; In an apparatusfor-charging liquids withgas, the combinationwith a holder of a pump. adapted to be connectedwithrthesupply1of-1iquidt0 be charged, a conduit connectingithe pump from itsdisch-arge-endiwith said holder'and containinga'mixingechamberi interposed between the discharge-end of the pump" and the holder, a gas-charging valvecontrolled pipe leading from a-supply of-the charging medium into the mixing-chamber, and means for. exerting counterpressure against the flow ofliquid through the mixingchamber and into the holder, substantially as described.

9. In an apparatus for charging liquids with gas, in combination with aholder, apump iadapted to be connected with the supply of iliquid to be charged, at conduit, connecting lithe pump-from its discharge-end with said iholderand containingamixing-chamber in- {terposed betweenuthe discharge-end of the ipurnp and the holder, a receptacle for liquidsupercharged with gas, having, avalvecontrolled. pipe connection .withthe mixing chamber,- ,and means vfor exerting counterpressureiagainst the flow of liquid through the. mixing-.chambenand into the holder, substantially as described; A

10. In an. apparatus. for, charging liquids with gaaxthe combination of a holder providediwithi. a draw-off device for racking, a pumpadaptedito .bei connected with the.sup-' vply 'of liquid; to be charged," a conduit conn ecting the pump from its discharge-end with said holder and; leading: downward, therein nearly, tori its base; a. mixingchamber ihterposedinsaidlconduit between the dischargeend of'the p,ump,and ther holder, a receptacle for; liquidsupercharged! with gas, having a valve-controlled pipeconnection with the mixing=chamber,-,and means for exertingcounterpressure. against the flow of Fliquid'through thermixing-chamber-and into the. holder, substantially as describedn 11: In. an apparatus. for charging liquids with. gas, ,the combination with a holder ofa pumpadaptedto be,connected withwthe supply ofliquid to. be charged, a conduit connecting'the pumpfrom its discharge end with said hold er and containing a mixingachamber interposed between .the discharge .end of the pump and the holder, a fluid-pressure reliefvalve forthe overflow from said holder, a gasohargingtvalve-controlled .pipe leading from a supplyofithe.charging;inedium into the mixing-chamber, andmeans for exerting counterpressure againstithe flow of liquid through the ,mixing chamber and into the holder, substantially as described;

12; lntau apparatus for carbonating beer, ,the combination withlaholder of a pump D ,and apumpDQcommunicating from their suction-sides .with .the beer-supply, an agitatorB communicating ,with thesupply of"carbonic acid gas and withthe. discharge-side of the pump D, a conduit 9 leadingtfrom the discharge-side of the pump D into the holder and containing. a mixing-chamber E communicating with the agitator through a valve-controlled tube i, apressure-reliet valve 9 for the overflow from theholder, and counterpressure mechanism on.the holder, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

a 13. In an apparatus for carbonating beer, the combination witha holder of' a pump D andv a pump D communicating from their suction-sides withthe beer-suppIy-and operatively connected witha crank-shaftmcar- ;rying'acam m, an agitatorB communicating with the supply of carbonic acid gas and with g leading from the discharge-side of the pump D into the holder and containing a mixingchamber E, a tube 2' connecting the agitator with the mixingchamber and containing a valve h connected from its handle with a lever k extending into the path of said cam, a pressure-relief valve g for the overflow from the holder, and counterpressure mechanism on the ho1der, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

14. In an apparatus for carbonating beer, the combination with a holder of a pump D adapted to be connected with the supply of beer to be charged, a conduit g connecting the pump from its discharge-end with said holder and containing a mixing-chamber E and a relief-valve 9 an agitator B com municating with a carbonic acid gas supply and discharging into the mixing-chamber through a valve-controlled tube, means for periodically opening the valve in said tube, a pump D communicating from its suction-end with said beer-supply and discharging into the agitator, a com pressed-air supply-pipe f containing a shut-oh valve and discharging into said holder, and a vent-pipe 6 leading from the holder and containing a shut-off valve, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

15. An apparatus for carbonating beer, comprising, in combination, a holder provided with a draw-oft pipe, an air-supply pipefcontaining a shut-off valve and leading into the holder, a vent-pipe e containing a shut-off valve and leading from the holder into a branch e of the pipe fcontaining a pressurereducing valve (1, a back-pressure reservoir G communicating with said branch c through a pipe e containing a pressure-reducing valve d um in mechanism communicatin at its ALVES M. HOFMANN. CHARLES B. VAN HORN.

' In presence of- M. J. FROST, J. H. LEE. 

